


a kind of hunger

by whiskeyandguns



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Body Horror, Horror, M/M, Psychological Horror, Psychological Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-29
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2020-02-09 12:28:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18638128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whiskeyandguns/pseuds/whiskeyandguns
Summary: On 22/10/2067 at approximately 22:40 (GMT-6), contact was lost with with a Blackwatch reconnaissance team for approximately 1 hr 53 min. During this time, Agents Volkov and McCree were apparently able to secure their location and dispatch of all hostile forces at their location. However, upon exfiltration they were disoriented and displayed symptoms of amnesia.-a blackwatch horror story.-- HIATUS





	a kind of hunger

**Author's Note:**

> a kind of hunger is a song by penny and sparrow. 
> 
> please proceed with caution if anything in the realm of dark/horror/gore/etc bothers you. new tags will be added as necessary.
> 
> NOTE: probably won't be completed

There was something . . . off about Agent McCree, Nia thought. She had been keeping an eye on him so far this mission but she couldn’t really put a finger to it. His comms had just as much wisecracking as usual but were mostly normal, aside from a little more static than usual--especially considering the quality of the tech she had given him.

Nia made sure that she kept her agents outfitted with the best when they went out into the field. Sure, they were the ones that were out doing the actual shooting and infiltration, but without her tech and her monitoring most of them might as well be stranded in on a raft in the middle of the ocean. She didn’t make mistakes in her tech anyway, Blackwatch couldn’t afford for her to.

At any rate, whatever it was going on with McCree’s comms wasn’t her. She had checked the tech, the settings, everything. She always had her techs check everything after her, too. She knew it was silly, letting a little static put her on edge about one of their best agents, but It was just . . . something about McCree. And it wasn’t the first time she had noticed it or felt this way, but she couldn’t remember anything specific that had ever set off those uneasy feelings.

She had even told Commander Reyes about her hesitance to work with him before, as risky of a move as that had been (everyone knew the Commander had a soft spot for McCree). Nia had been honest though--McCree was a friendly enough, always smiling and joking around but there was something . . . Nia didn’t feel like she would be safe with him watching her back. Even though, statistically, teams with McCree on them had the highest kill counts and the fewest casualties in Blackwatch history.

She had done the math, just to see how it played out. If it would help her relax around him.

It didn’t.

Nia tried not to let it bother her, she had a job to do and it didn’t involve trusting McCree with her own life--just a hell of a lot of other things. And the lives of people that she _did_ trust, perhaps even more than herself. But she couldn’t let her own feelings cloud how she handled McCree from afar.

Only this time she wondered if it really was just all a coincidence. With his staticky comms, and now.

There it went--the screens of the top-of-the-line camera attached to his tac gear. This was only supposed to be a surveillance opp. McCree was only on it because Hill had broken her wrist and the medics hadn’t cleared her yet before lift off and it was time sensitive. McCree, Commander Reyes had said, was the only person that he trusted to take Hill’s place.

But it was so short notice--McCree couldn’t have known he was next in line for it. He wasn’t sabotaging this. He was clearly a smart and capable agent, but he wasn’t extraordinarily technically savvy. He put on an act for some people like he was an oaf, but Nia didn’t believe it, but Blackwatch agents wouldn’t exactly be good counter-intelligence agents if they couldn’t see through a rouse as simple as that. Regardless, even if that was justanact, Nia really didn’t believe that he was capable of sabotaging her tech.

Except for the flickering of the camera feeds attached to his tac gear. Just like last time. Nia glanced at her other screen--Volkov’s feed was still mostly clear, both were reading full strength signals for now.

“Volkov, McCree. Proceed with caution, I’m getting interference from McCree’s signal. You may be compromised. Running diagnostics now, I’ll keep you updated.” She sent the message to both of their comms--they weren’t in a good position to reply to her, but the comm link was open. In case of emergency, they’d be able to ring her in to kick off an early exfiltration if they needed it.

She couldn’t shake this feeling . . .

It didn’t help that the further they went into enemy territory, the more clouded that McCree’s feed became. And then it was almost like it was infecting Volkov’s feed--it was almost like a fog, it had started on the left and bled over to the right of his feed.

Nia wasn’t risking it, she could at least _warn_ him. God, if word about this got out Reyes would have her head for suspecting this kind of treason of his favorite. “Agent Volkov, do _not_ indicate I am speaking to you at all. Watch McCree.” She said, “I’m not detecting an interference in the signal stre--” 

Before she could even finish the warning, she was cut off from them, the signal dead in the water and nothing but a heavy silence in her room. The feeds had gone completely black in an instant. There were so many fail safes that this shouldn’t even be possible. Nia checked her monitors and they were still detecting full signal. She tried to tune the audio in but it was just this awful _screeching_ . Even as she was turning the volume down, it was just getting _louder_ . And louder. Nia was frantically trying to pull up some of her other screens to check on the fail safes, to see if they had been compromised--but now _everything_ was flickering and buzzing and screeching.

She wasn’t sure that she could handle this mounting pressure. It was building, from the sound, the flickering of the screen. Her heart felt like it was about to burst out through her chest, she could barely think.

She hadn’t changed channels, it should just be Ivan. McCree shouldn’t be able to hear her. If she could just get through, if the signal could still get to him. She didn’t even know what might be working at all anymore.

“Ivan--please, there’s something wrong. Get away from Agent--” The shrieking of the equipment went even louder for one sharp, tense moment. And then all at once, every monitor went off. The lights from all of her keyboards, her holodecks. Each display. Dark.

Her tiny room, carefully closed off. Descended and plunged into darkness.

The shrieking had stopped--but it was replaced by this low buzzing hum. Nia thought it was just the sudden silence that was throwing her off, but it was getting louder too. And it wasn’t just a hum, it was like a _pressure_ building in the room. She had thought it was just the screeching making her head hurt, but it was something so much more _._ She could feel it building up around her, pressing on her temples and from behind her eyes. It was just _louder_ and pressing _harder_ and she thought that she was going to scream. She was Blackwatch--she could take this.

* * *

In that moment between regaining consciousness and opening her eyes, Nia almost didn’t realize anything was wrong. There was a brief lull, something comforting in the absolute silence and darkness. Until she opened her eyes, blinking away the blurriness of sleep.

She was on the floor, in her control room. Of course, there had been a mission. It was Volkov and Hill--no, agent McCree had been put on at the last minute. _Fuck!_ What had happened? She winced as she pulled herself up, feeling light headed for a moment as she righted herself. Nia leaned against the desk trying to focus on the screen before she picked up her chair and slowly sunk down into it.

She couldn’t remember how she had fallen down, knocked over her chair. Everything looked normal--her monitors all displayed crisp, clear images. The tickers and monitoring equipment, from a glance, were working just as they always did, she could see Volkov’s and McCree’s vitals on the screen. Everything seemed like it should be in order. There was no one else in there with her. According to her system, her security hadn’t been breached and everything was fine. What about her fail-safes? There were emergency protocols in place for if she failed to respond to certain types of signals. What about the mission?

 _Fuck_ , she hissed again. McCree and Volkov--she glanced at the clock, she had to have been out for, what. Two hours by now?   

“My god, Agent McCree, Agent Volkov. Are you alright?” She asked, trying not to let her crescending panic through into her voice. She could see the security camera feeds from the site they were supposed to be on a _surveillance_ mission for. There was--it looked like a tornado had flown through. It was pure chaos.

Nia had seen destruction through her time in Blackwatch. This wasn’t just destruction though, it was a wreck of chaos, blood and viscera smattered around the room and all over the Agents.

But there was McCree and Volkov--she could see them through each others feeds. Both looked shell shocked, but mostly in one piece (but for all the blood). Through all of that, through the blood smattered across his face even, McCree was smiling--that dopey grin of his that he got when he was teasing someone. It sent a chill down Nia’s smile, the uneasiness of the image made her feel light-headed.

“You betcha. Why don’t you call for exfil now? Think we could both get outta here.” McCree said. He didn’t sound quite alright, but Nia couldn’t place her finger on the tone--couldn’t stop to think about it, she just had to get them out.

“Of course, stand by for pick up coordinates. Fio will be there in short order.” Nia couldn’t stop glancing over to McCree’s feed--looking at Ivan’s face, smattered with blood and god knows what else. He didn’t even look like he was _there_.

Keep it together, Nia, she reminded herself. He was with Agent McCree. Nothing was going to get him between there and the drop ship. Not with McCree at his side. Teams with McCree on them had the highest kill counts and the fewest casualties in Blackwatch history. 

She had done the math, just to see how it played out.

 

* * *

 

TOP-SECRET

HIGHLY SENSITIVE

 

Sep 23, 2067

MEMORANDUM FOR THE STRIKE COMMANDER JACK MORRISON

FROM: COMMANDER GABRIEL REYES

 

SUBJECT: RECONNAISSANCE MISSION - LAS CRUCES

 

On September 22, 2067 Blackwatch deployed Agents Ivan Volkov and Jesse McCree on a reconnaissance mission to Las Cruces, New Mexico to follow up on previously acquired information suggesting a new alliance between a local organization and Talon. Volkov and McCree were sent to gather information about a compound on the outskirts of the city and its purpose.

 

At approximately 22:40, Agents Volkov and McCree’s presence near the site of the compound was compromised. Contact with Agents Volkov and McCree was lost for approximately 1 hour and 53 minutes. During this time, Agents were able to secure the compound and incapacitate all hostile forces. Although they were able to secure the area, the Agents suffered no major injuries but were disoriented and presented signs of amnesia once they were exfiltrated from the compound. Agent

 

The Blackwatch Technical Lead, Agent Jelani, running point was able to find no sources of technical fault in the officially distributed equipment and no remnants of what caused the initial disruption and interference in the mission. It is her recommendation that either Talon or the local branch of the Cartel may have developed some type of advanced disruptor signals, capable of both technical and biological interference. As the de-facto Quartermaster of Blackwatch operations, I value her recommendation and pass it on to you. A full report with more information, as much as can be ascertained, will follow as soon as it can be completed.

 

Until more information about the source and nature of the compromise can be uncovered, it is recommended that any and all Blackwatch and/or Overwatch teams that may potentially encounter any interference in their primary mission objective from either Talon or the Cartel proceed with extreme caution and have alternate signals and fail-safes in place in case they are compromised. This recommendation is not made lightly, considering its potential impact and the extra resources and planning it may require.

 

More information will be made available to the Strike Commander as it is available and processed. Classified recommendations for the appropriate precautions for teams to make on missions will follow and be distributed where appropriate.

 

Commander Gabriel Reyes

23/10/2067

 

TOP SECRET

* * *

 

“Look, Jesse. I just need you to talk to me here. There’s gotta be something else.” Gabriel was frustrated, and he knew it was coming through his voice as hard as he was trying to be calm here. He didn’t really let himself be vulnerable around many people, but Jesse was a different case. He was a good agent, an excellent asset to Blackwatch that was more capable than most people had been willing to give him credit for when he had been brought on. Gabe couldn’t help that he had gotten . . . attached.

“I already told you, boss. I don’t remember.” Jesse looked tired--he had slept a few hours since they had picked him up, but his eyes looked hollowed out, his skin a little sallow. He looked almost as dead tired as he had when Gabe had wrenched him away from Deadlock, after they had been holed up for months while Blackwatch hounded after them.

“You have to try harder, McCree.” Gabe said sternly. “This wasn’t a normal glitch in the system. Something happened to you and Volkov out there.”

There was a moment of silence, before Jesse looked up at Gabe again, “He come to, yet?”

Gabe just shook his head, “O’Deorain has him under observation right now. No changes since she got him.”

“I wish I knew. Or could tell you anything else. You know I’d tell you anything I knew--all I know is that Volkov and me were set up for recon and then--well . . .” McCree trailed off, looking away again.

Gabe couldn’t blame him. McCree was usually cocky and full of himself, but having seen what he had, it was no surprise he was a little more subdued than usual. Jelani had taken caps from the feeds she had recorded, or what was left of the recordings, after the signals had come back.

Throughout all his years in Blackwatch, and before that during the Omnic Crisis, Gabe had seen a lot of shit. He had seen machines systematically cut down masses of civilians, and the aftermath of it. He had seen terrorist cells cut through those who would resist them with no mercy. None of it quite compared to what he he had seen in those recordings and screencaps.

Gabe didn’t know if it was man or machine that had done that--it almost didn’t seem like it could be either, but instead had to be something more monstrous. Omnics were ruthlessly efficient, and even the Cartels or Talon, well, there was a method to the madness in the scenes that they left behind them. This? It was utter chaos. And it had left one of his best agents totally unresponsive and another one skittish and twitchy, with a block in his memory. Yet, there wasn’t a scratch on either of either of them.

That, perhaps, was more worrying to Gabe than the wreckage made of the Cartel members. Outside of the possible Talon connections, they were barely even on Blackwatch’s shortlist--but only for the fact that Blackwatch typically had bigger fish to fry. He wasn’t going to be upset that they were gone. But leaving his agents totally unscathed, but covered in blood with dismembered limbs scattered all around them?

It was some kind of message. He didn’t know what kind or from whom, but there was an uneasiness settling into his bones as he sat across from Jesse. He was relieved that he was back, mostly in one piece. But Gabe hadn’t survived this long by taking things at face value.

“I know this is hard, McCree. Just think back--what was the first thing you remember afterwards? Close your eyes. What do you smell? Do you hear anything?”

Jesse closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and fuck, he still looked so tired and hollowed out. He needed a more formal check up--maybe he would get Ziegler down here to help O’Deorain, to see if maybe the two of them could stop bickering long enough and put their heads together and figure out what had happened.

“Just smells like. Blood. Like death and rot, like everything had already been there, sitting in the sun for days before we got there. But it hadn’t been. Could look at it and tell.” Jesse spoke quietly, almost hesitantly. His expression flickered between concentration and something else, before he spoke again, “Could feel it where it was on me--the blood. Too sticky, too wet. It was like waking up out of a fever dream, where you can’t quite figure out what’s happening.”

“You sure that there wasn’t anything there before?” None of the surveillance feeds had shown anything like the massacre at all before Volkov and McCree had landed, but it was worth asking anyway. Maybe it had been rigged and set up.

Jesse shook his head, “Nah. Killed enough people before to know what it looks like fresh. There was this . . . buzzing. I dunno if it was flies, or not, but it sounded louder. Or like it was right next to my ear or something. Dunno where it was coming from.”

“That’s good Jesse. What about Volkov?”

“He looked worse off than me, or at least how I felt. Had that thousand yard stare, mouth hanging open, shaking a little. Couldn’t get him to say anything then, either. He just kept staring at me. I tried to get him to move, but I couldn’t. Not until Jelani was back in comms and he heard her. He sort of seemed to come back to it a little then? But not like he had been before.”

“What else about him, you said he looked worse off than you?”

“Just the shocked kind of look. I think I had more of the blood and shit on me. His rifle was still round his back. And, come to think of it, my gun was still holstered. Didn’t count my ammo yet, but . . . I dunno if I ever pulled it out at all.” Jesse opened his eyes, looking even more uneasy. Gabe could tell he wanted to ask questions. There was something haunted there, that Gabe could recognize all too well. _What happened to me, what did they do, did they do something to me_. It reminded him of the unease of SEP, that feeling of not knowing what had happened to your body. Not being able to fill in the gaps from point A to point B. At least Gabe’s cohort had never had any of the memory loss side-effects.

“That’s something, Jesse.”

“Not enough.”

“It’s good enough for now. We’ll try again after you get some rest. I’m gonna take you to medical. I want O’Deorain to keep you under observation tonight.”

That didn’t seem to make Jesse any less uneasy. “You really think that’s necessary.”

“We don’t know what happened to you and Volkov. He’s in bad shape, McCree. I’d rather be safe than sorry.” Gabe just hoped the, _I can’t lose you_ , was implied enough. He’d hate to actually have to say it.

“Fine.” Jesse muttered, getting up out of his seat. Gabe watched him carefully as he moved, didn’t want him getting disoriented or falling. No telling what might happen with him. He was hoping that since Jesse seemed to be mostly fine, that would be the end of it. Whatever was going on with Volkov might not affect him at all (or it might set in at any minute, send him catatonic). 

But Jesse seemed fine as he stood and made his way to the door. “Hold your horses, I’m walking with you.”

“Don’t need a babysitter,” Jesse said, rolling his eyes at Gabe. It was typical McCree, of course. This kid never ceased to amaze Gabe. There was just something about him . . .

“No, but I’m going there anyways, so we might as well walk together.” Gabe wasn’t sure that Jesse bought it, but it was true. He wanted to talk to O’Deorain in person, see if there was any news on Volkov. Make sure that she wasn’t going to traumatize McCree or piss him off, any more than was strictly necessary, with whatever testing testing she was going to want to do with him.

“I suppose I can allow that,” Jesse said, opening the door out of the room they had been using for debriefing. “You’re not bad company.”

“Could say the same for you.” Gabe replied. It felt almost normal, for a brief moment. Like any other debrief he had ever run for McCree. But as they stepped out of the room, it all came crashing back into him. Some of the Agents working in the room outside were glancing at Jesse, then back away, then back again. Like they didn’t want him to notice them looking at him, but couldn’t help but look anyway. There was something in each of their expressions that was identical, something caught between unease and relief.

Whatever it was reminded Gabe of the enormity of the task before them. Of the danger facing them all. It wasn’t just some ordinary mission gone awry because someone had been made or missed their shot, this was ten scales bigger than this. A whole new layout for the war they were fighting.

And Jesse, walking in front of him, was ground zero.


End file.
